In Trouble
by DarkestIllusions45
Summary: Slightly AU. When Zac gets stuck in a net and discovered, his life changes completely. Trapped as a scientific experiment, no way out of the revelation that is to come, what is he to do? Will Rita, Lyla, Nixie and Sirena risk their own secrets to try and save him or remain under cover and hide away?
1. The Second Day

**Nexus: Now what kind of loyal Mako Mermaids fan would I be if I didn't do a fanfic on it at some point?**

**Zac: Not a very good one for an FF writer at least...**

**Nexus: Well, after trawling through what at the time was only 16 Mako fanfics, I decided to make one of my own to add to the collection. Besides, that would make it fanfic number 17 and that's my lucky number ^_^**

**In short, this is going to be the story from the beginning of episode 2 and onwards but things happen my way and things don't go as planned, and it is AU as well...**

**Zac: Now I'm worried because I have no idea what on earth you are going to do to me...**

**Lyla: Me too**

**Nexus: You'll all be fine for f*** sake! Well... we'll see just how safe you all are as the chapters pile on ;)**

**Just note, I don't own Mako Mermaids but I wish I did!**

* * *

**In Trouble**

Chapter 1: The second day

"Zac, it is time to get up," the monotone voice from Zac's alarm said repeatedly until he grabbed his phone and shut it off, throwing it back onto the pile of clothes it was layed on already.

He briefly turned his head and tried to drift back to sleep again before jolting wide awake, remembering everything that happened yesterday including the whole growing a fish tail part of the day.

Slowly, he lifted off the covers and gave them an almighty tug, a sigh escaping from his lips when he saw that he still had legs. He stretched briefly before jumping out of bed and grabbing a glass of water that was on a nearby desk, taking a sip of the water.

Just when he was about to put the glass back, an idea shot through his head. He'd only got his tail once he was cased in water. What would happen if he poured a tiny bit onto his feet? He very carefully tipped a small amount over his feet, slightly pleased when he saw that no tail grew straight away. Just when he thought he was safe to walk though, he felt a tingling sensation in his legs as he fell back onto his bed, his new long blue tail in place of his legs. He only a few brief seconds to look at himself before Zac could hear his dad knocking on his door.

"No dad, wait!" Zac called as he hastily threw the covers back over himself. It wasn't awkward enough that he'd got a tail and his dad just had to knock and come in right when he had it. Lucky Zac.

"Are you alright?" His dad asked as he looked at his son who had the covers held very tightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zac lied plainly.

"You're cutting it a bit fine aren't you? It's Saturday..." his dad dragged trying to get his son to realise what was going on.

"Great, that means I get to sleep in then," Zac replied, pulling the covers further over himself, resting his head back onto his pillow. "Bye."

"Zac, Lifesaving," his dad reminded him firmly. "You only do it every weekend."

Zac sighed and released the covers slightly. "Yeah, right, I'm coming," his said lifelessly.

"You sure you're okay?" His dad asked worried, walking over to the other side of his bed and grabbed the covers.

"Dad!" Zac raised his voice at him. If he pulled back the covers now, that was it.

"Zac, I'm a doctor, there's nothing that I've not seen before," his dad replied, tugging at the covers even harder.

"No dad!" Zac screamed and tensed as the covers were pulled right off of him, a dumbfounded look taking over his face when he saw that his tail was once again gone, rubbing his legs just to be sure he wasn't seeing things.

"It's time you weren't here," his dad said as he began to walk out of his room, inspecting it as he left. "Love what you're doing with the place," he remarked. Let's face it, Zac's garage was a mess, clothes everywhere, things just hanging around, old plates and mugs. But then again, what do you expect for the room of a teenager who has his own little place separate to his house and family?"

* * *

**- At the Ocean Cafe -**

Zac and Cam were both sitting down outside, eating breakfast before they began a day of hectic Lifesaving duty once more.

"Luckily dad didn't see anything so you're the only one that knows," Zac told his friend.

"Well, what are you gonna do about Lifesaving, ya can't go in the water after all," Cam mentioned.

"This is my point. How am I supposed to do Lifesaving, if I can't even go in the water?" Zac asked.

"Look, just stop stressing," Cam replied as he finished his bowl of food and pushed it to the side. "Let's just get through today." He saw that Zac wasn't making any advance on it and swiped his plate from him, taking a good stab at the food that was on it.

"You're not helping," Zac motioned.

"You don't know what this is," Cam defended. "It could be like, the 24 hour flu."

"Oh yeah, the uh, famous 24 hour merman tail flu," Zac joked back.

"You need to make the most of it!" Cam said. "It's like, this incredible gift, that you can share with people." His eyes lit up brightly. "For money."

"I'm not gonna be some kind of freak show," Zac stated.

"Zac the cash benefits here could be amazing- I'd take a small percentage but-" Cam began to say before he was interrupted.

"You just don't get it do you, this is really happening to me," Zac said strongly. Cam wasn't taking the fact that Zac grew a tail every time he touched water very seriously at this point in time. And worse, his first thought was to try and sell Zac for money! Some best friend Cam was being right now. "Oh yeah, could you tell Nick that I'm not going to be at lifesaving today?"

"What?" Cam asked rather surprised. "Look, I know with everything that's happened to you that you don't want to be there but you can't just not turn up Zac."

"Well, tell him I'm not well or something," Zac said as he stood up."

"You're not just going to stay at home are you? After all your dad is a doctor, you can't fake illnesses around him," Cam remembered.

"I'm not going to be at home, I'll be somewhere else," Zac said with a smirk before walking away, leaving Cam rather confused.

* * *

**- Later on that day, Lifesaving duty -**

"Hey Cam, where's Zac?" Nick asked as Cam turned up for Lifesaving.

"He's uh, not well," Cam said lying through his teeth.

Nick sighed. "Great, short staffed! You and him where the only two that could be here today as John called in sick earlier this morning, meaning I have to go find someone else to fill in Zac's place now."

"Can't you just fill that place yourself?" Cam asked.

"I've got other places to be today, including a recruiting session in half an hour," Nick said as he began running off to find someone. "Just hold the fort down would ya?!"

Cam took his place up on the Lifeguard chair and hoped that Nick would find someone else to cover. "Come on Zac, where the hell did you go?"

Zac wasn't actually too far from where Cam was, peering out over from the rocks in the water. He felt kind of bad for not going on Lifesaving today, but he had some other matters to attend to. When he turned into a merman yesterday and swam back to his house, he knew the whole time that his body was naturally breathing. In short, Zac could even breathe underwater and he wanted to test it, now.

He ducked back under the water and swam away from the shore until he couldn't see anyone on the surface, making sure he held his breath at the time. When he was far enough away, he floated down to the sea floor and readied himself. He opened his mouth and took a short but sharp breath in. And he felt it, air was entering his system. He sat there for another minute just breathing in and out, enjoying the wonderful feeling that it gave him.

"This is amazing," he said without even realising that he'd said it. A second later, it had just hit him that he'd said something and heard it with his own two ears. "Oh my god," he said slowly to himself, quickly covering his mouth afterwards. He eventually took his hands down and just floated there in amazement. He would never had guessed that getting a tail meant you got all the perks that mermaids in old legends did.

But best of all, Zac felt free. The ocean was the one place he could get away to and just forget about everything in the world and stay there for as long as he wanted.

He was about to turn around and swim off around the reefs a bit more before he heard a muffled scream not far away from him.

During this time back on the surface, Cam was rather distracted. Rather, his mind was. He was trying to figure out where Zac had gone and also wondering if Nick would ever find a replacement for him.

"Help!" A voice called, which broke Cam's concentration. He pulled out his binoculars and looked over at the Ocean. He eventually spotted a little girl flailing her arms around, trying to get back to her board.

"Oh no," Cam said jumping off of his tower and began running towards the ocean to go save the girl.

"Hold on sweetie!" The little girl's mother called as she saw Cam flying at breakneck speed towards the water to get her.

When Cam was about half way out to her, the little girls body disappeared the under waves. "Oh no," Cam said one more time, trying to speed up the pace of his swimming.

Back to Zac when he'd heard the muffled scream. He turned around instantly and could make out something in the water, something human shaped. Without a second thought, he began speeding over to it, only to find it was a little girl who was slowly sinking further down into the Ocean.

Zac scooped her up into his arms and watched as the little girl turned her head towards him, her eyes wide when she saw him, looking firstly at his face and then his tail. He smiled at her and said, "You'll be okay now," in a soft tone, and began swimming towards the surface.

When he hit the surface, he looked out first to see if Cam had noticed her drowning and Cam had. That was one thing Zac was grateful for, as Cam swam to him. The little girl on the other hand was coughing out all of the water that had entered her body when she'd screamed.

Cam overlooked the situation carefully. Zac has just saved this little girl, did this mean she now knew about him? He tried to keep his calm about the situation, forgetting about the little girl in Zac's arms for a minute.

"Is this where you've been all day so far? "Cam asked him, sounding slightly annoyed. "You took a day off of Lifesaving just so you could swim around!?"

"Don't sound so mean Cam, I did just save this little girl for you. If I wasn't here, she might of drowned by now," Zac told him with a smile on his face. He looked down to see the scared look on the little girls face. She eventually worked up the courage to say something, over coming her initial shock. "You're a fish!"

Zac just smiled at her again and passed her over into the arms of Cam.

From the shore, Nick had finally come back and had found a replacement for Zac and was currently watching the scene with Cam, Zac and the little girl. Luckily, they were too far away to hear anything that they were saying. The girl's mother was also watching with them. Nick had gotten quite a shock when Zac emerged out of the ocean with a girl in his arms. He thought that Cam told him that he was ill, not that he was out in the ocean for some reason. All that mattered was that the little girl was safe and if Zac hadn't of been there, she would have surely drowned before Cam reached her.

"Hey, who's that guys out in the water?" Zac's replacement asked.

"That's Zac. The one who you're replacing for today," Nick replied only slightly focused on what the boy was saying.

"But I thought you said he was ill," the boys asked.

"I thought he was too," Nick said half-mindedly. _*Why would Zac lie about being ill if he was going to be out in the water on patrol? He didn't even seem the slightest bit tired when he broke the surface, and I hadn't seen him since the girl went under, meaning he must have been down there the whole time! Zac, just what on earth are you? Surely you can't be human...*_

"Uh Nick, you okay?" The boy asked looking at Nick's distance face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, still sounding distance minded.

Back with Cam and Zac, the little girl had gotten over her shaking and was rather attached to Zac at the minute. "Thank you for saving me," she said to him again.

"I've already said it, you don't need to thank me," Zac joked with a smile plastered on his face.

"In all seriousness Zac, why take a day off of Lifesaving, just to swim around for a bit?" Cam asked again.

"I wanted to test something," Zac replied plainly.

"Couldn't you have tested it another day? How important could this 'test' have been?" Cam questioned annoyed that he skipped his job, for this.

"Very important," Zac replied, looking down to the little girl.

"You can breath underwater, you spoke to me," the little girl said, taking the words right out of Zac's mouth. Zac just shushed her.

Cam had a dumbfounded face and just stared at Zac. "You... can breath underwater? And talk!?"

"Just like mermaids in old legends," the little girl spoke up. "I've always believed in them."

Zac just smiled at her before turning his attention back to the shocked Cam. "You'd better get her back to shore."

"And you might wanna dry off and get back to Nick. You need to tell him you were feeling better. And besides, since I've done chair work so far, you get it for the rest of our patrol today," Cam explained, before turning around and taking the little girl back to shore.

"Yep, just gonna have to explain to Nick why I was out in the water instead of at home since I was ill. And tell him I'm quitting Lifesaving," Zac said to himself, before diving under and swimming back to the rocks to find a towel.

When Cam got back to shore, the first thing the little girl's mum did was run straight for her and pick her up. "Oh sweetie! I thought I told you not to go in the water without me."

The girl's mum turned straight to Cam. "Thank you for bringing her back safely. Who was the boy who saved her that I saw?"

"Zac, one of our other lifesaver's," Nick spoke up. "Cam, a word." Nick then walked away to a little spot where him and Cam could talk.

"Is this about Zac?" Cam asked.

"You told me, he was ill," Nick began. "So why was he out in the water?"

Cam had to come up with something and fast. "He, honestly wanted to check out the reef. He's become a bit of a coral freak lately." Well, that wasn't a total lie, Zac had been swimming out by a reef.

"No scuba gear?" Nick questioned.

"He's been trying to improve his breath holding times recently so I guess he chose not to use any," Cam lied.

"Kid's got some lungs then," Nick said distantly. "So, how come Zac hasn't come back to shore yet?"

"He must have taken all his clothing in a bag and left from a different part of the shore," Cam thought up quickly.

Just then, Zac walked over. "Hey Nick," Zac said slowly.

"Cam, back on duty. Zac, a word," Nick instructed.

"If this is about me and not being on Lifesaving today then there's something I need to tell you," Zac began.

"If you don't want to do Lifesaving any more because of personal hobbies around the reef, then it's okay," Nick said. He didn't want to let his best Lifesaver go but he wanted Zac to be happy, after all, he had seemed rather bored the last few times he was on patrol.

"Seriously?" Zac asked rather surprised. "You'd be okay with me quitting it?"

"Yes. Besides, you'll be around the reef anyway, you can still be on the lookout from time to time," Nick suggested.

"Yeah, 'course," Zac said, rather happy that Nick was totally okay with him not doing this any more. Well, it made keeping his secret easier.

* * *

**- Later on that day -**

"Wait wait wait. Nick was okay with you quitting?" Cam asked shocked.

"He actually brought up me quitting first," Zac replied. "Besides, you don't have to do as bigger shift on a weekend now, Nick found a new recruit who can do more hours on a Saturday than I or you could."

"At least it'll be easier to keep the fish secret," Cam reminded him. "But about earlier, could you seriously breath and talk underwater?"

"It's amazing! It's just water around you but you feel like you're breathing real air," Zac said, like he was in a world of is own. "You can just stay down there forever."

"Makes you wonder if you're the only one," Cam asked.

"It's a good point," Zac noticed, taking a seat on his couch. "Why would I be the only one? Why wouldn't there be other mermaids or even other mermen out there?"

"Why even mermen? You think the gender ratio would be equal like humans," Cam questioned.

"I did some research last night on people like me and apparently, mermen are rarely seen compared to mermaids. Mermaids seem to make up more of the ocean population than we do," Zac explained.

"Well, I'd better be going home," Cam said standing up and grabbing his bag. "I'll see you at school on Monday," he called as he walked out the door.

"See ya," Zac called back.

"I wonder if there are other mermaids out there," Zac thought to himself.

* * *

**Nexus: Well that was chapter 1. The main point of this story will kick out next chapter, which will take place during episode 6. If anyone was wondering about Lyla, Nixie and Sirena, since the incident happened earlier on that in the show, they were never there. And when they asked Evie about where he was, she said she had no clue now that he'd quit Lifesaving and the girls just went back to Mako. They'll be appearing next chapter for sure though.**

**Lyla: Thanks, we were feeling just a little left out here...**

**Nexus: You'll get your limelight soon, probably chapter 4**

**Lyla: Knowing you, that could take ages.**

**Nexus: Just be glad you're even getting any limelight Lyla!**

**Well, if anyone could leave a review here I would be most grateful. You should know, the more reviews I get, the more likely I am to post chapters early ;)**

**See you all when the next chapter is up ^_^**


	2. The Beginning

**Nexus: Well, here's chapter 2...**

**Zac: *reads over plans for this chapter* You're going to have me do what!?**

**Nexus: Shhh, don't let them know my plans for this chapter! Let's get on with it then. As you all known, I don't own Mako Mermaids and I plus everyone else who loves it wishes they owned it!**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Beginning

A week or so had gone by since Zac had been transformed. And during that week, things had changed quite a bit around the coast. Three girls called Lyla, Nixie and Sirena had suddenly appeared, claiming to be the Principal of Sun Coast High nieces, Rita Santos. Yet they didn't actually go to Sun Coast High, they claimed to go to a different school, which seemed really odd.

Today happened to be the day that David's brother Joe had gotten a new Speed Boat and wanted to test it out. Not only had he convinced his brother to come along, but some how magnificently convinced Sirena to come along for a quick ride as well.

"You okay Sirena?" David asked as he looked his shoulder at her. She seemed a little pale and concerned.

"Oh, I'm fine," she replied putting on a smile. She had no idea herself how she'd ended up on a boat out in the middle of the Ocean with her crush and his annoying brother. She'd only agreed to come along because David was forced to beg for her to come with by Joe. Older brothers could be so cruel and controlling when they wanted/ needed to be.

"I just feel a little weird is all," she said clutching her stomach. She didn't feel too good.

"She's not sea sick is she?" Joe asked.

"Sea sick?" Sirena asked confused. She'd never heard of it.

"Do you feel a little ill, churning in your stomach?" David asked worriedly.

"A little," Sirena replied. "I don't want to sound mean but do you think we could turn around and drop me off?"

"Whilst you're at it, me too," David added.

"Fine," Joe sighed loudly. He was about to spin his boat around when his Fish Finder made a beeping noise, indication signs of movement below.

"Hang on a second," Joe said to himself, turning on the fish finder, only to see a big heat marked source that looked like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"David, are you seeing this? What is that?" He asked looking towards his brother.

"Maybe it's a dolphin," David suggested.

"It's not like any dolphin I've ever seen," Joe replied.

Sirena took a look at the object moving for herself and recognised what it was instantly. It looked like a mermaid swimming, and Nixie said she was going for a swim before she left the Ocean Cafe. Did that mean the moving object was Nixie? She had to find a way to get Joe off of her.

"Um, can we head back to land now?" Sirena asked sounding a little frantic.

Joe looked at her, then the moving object on the fish finder.

"David, go comfort your girlfriend for a bit, there is no way I am letting this thing go," Joe said as he sped up his boat a little to keep up with the pace the thing below was now setting.

"You are unbelievable," David glared.

Nixie, swimming below, could hear something above her and stopped for a second to see what it was. It was a boat. Nixie was feeling a little paranoid right now so she turned around and began torpedo swimming.

"Woah! Did you see the speed that thing just moved at!?" Joe exclaimed. Joe then kicked his boat up to a higher speed, one to match Nixie and followed her.

"Joe, if this is a Dolphin you know what chasing it is illegal right?" David explained.

"I don't care, this thing can't be a dolphin anyway, it's way too fast," Joe replied with determination in his voice. He was not going to let this thing get away.

3 minutes later, he'd managed to chase the creature all the way into the canals, the area where Zac lived.

"Could you at least dock me and Sirena off here?" David asked nicely.

Joe pulled his boat up along side the Dock, watching as Sirena and David departed from his boat.

Nixie on the other hand was pressed against the one of the legs that supported the dock. When she heard footsteps, she thought it would be a good chance to get away. She tried to push off, but she couldn't. The bottom of her fin had got entangled in the blue net that was wrapped around the dock legs.

The sudden movement alerted Joe's Fish Finder. "Woah hey, David! I think it's down under the Jetty!" Joe called to his brother.

"Just leave it alone man," David said tiredly. When was Joe going to leave this thing alone? "Turn your boat around and get out of here!"

"Are you crazy!?" Joe retaliated. "I'm not going anywhere until I find out what it is."

"You're the one who's crazy. Don't be a stupid idiot, you're scaring it," David fought back.

No sooner than that conversation was over did Zac walk out onto the dock. "What's up?" He asked.

"My idiot brother's chased something into the canal. It's down there," David explained.

"What is it?" Zac asked.

"I think it's a dolphin," David replied.

"And I told you, that there is no way that that thing is a dolphin!" Joe answered back. "Zac, come check it out on the finder. Maybe you can work out what it is."

Zac thought it was worth a try. He carefully hopped onto Joe's boat and took a look at the heat source that was creating an image. His eyes went wide like Sirena's did. "I'll... be back in just a minute," Zac said slowly before jumping off back onto the docks and making a run towards a remote location where he could dive into the water without being seen. _*I know the shape of that image. It's someone like me,__*_ Zac thought to himself.

At that moment, Lyla had also appeared. "Sirena, what's going on?"

"Joe's chased some kind of dolphin into the canals, it's stuck under the jetty, apparently," David briefly explained in place of Sirena.

The two girls looked down at the area of the canal David was talking about. A second later, Nixie appeared. She'd been using her powers to keep herself invisible.

They walked away to have a talk. "How did she get down there?" Lyla asked seriously.

"I was on the boat when something called a Fish Finder got an outline of Nixie and Joe's chased her all the way down to the canals. She seems to be stuck, one of us needs to help her," Sirena explained.

"Hey, David! There's two now!" Joe called, seeing another heat source image much like the one that was already under the dock.

"Another one!?" Lyla and Sirena asked in shock. "But, who else could there be besides Nixie? I mean, the pod left," Sirena thought.

Realization suddenly hit Lyla. Zac wasn't here and there was another merperson under the dock. "Zac, he's going to find out!"

Lyla was about to run off and dive into the water when Sirena grabbed her hand and held her back.

"What are you doing?" Lyla asked annoyed.

"Just leave it Lyla. Zac's already seen her by now, her secret will be out," Sirena told her in a calming voice.

Lyla was rather frantic right now. Zac would be down there talking to Nixie, what on earth they were saying was another issue.

Back to when Zac dove under the dock, he swam up to the dock leg but saw nothing. He was about to turn around but a second later he heard a noise. He turned around to see one of the girls that had mysteriously rolled up into town, as a mermaid.

Nixie's powers had to run out at some point and she was dead scared now that Zac had a full view of her, as what she was.

"Nixie!?" Zac asked incredulously.

"Like you're one to call a name, Zac," Nixie spoke back in a harsh tone.

"You're a mermaid?" Zac asked.

"So what? Like you're no different," she replied, glaring at him. Her face seemed full of worry.

He looked down at her tail to see that it was stuck in the netting wrapped around the dock leg. "So it was you Joe was following and now you're stuck?"

"Well done captain obvious! Now are you going to help me get out of this net before someone sees us?" Nixie asked, still pulling away at the netting.

Zac swam down and began pulling away at the net trying to free her tail. Zac would never had guessed that when there were other mermaids out there, that one of his newly found friends would be one.

"You don't seem the slightest bit surprised about me," Zac said in all seriousness.

"I've seen you around. I was just trying to keep my cover. After all, it's not everyday a merman just rolls up and ends up helping out a mermaid," Nixie replied. She couldn't let on that Lyla and Sirena were the same as him, or Rita.

After a few more tugs, Nixie's tail was free. She swam back a bit and stared at Zac. "Anyway, why would a merman like you help a mermaid? After all, you are our greatest enemy, we fear you."

"I don't care if you don't trust me. I had to get you or whatever was down here out of that net and not risk any of us being discovered. It's probably the last thing any of us would want right now," Zac explained. Then it hit him, what about the other two. "And what of Lyla and Sirena? Do they know that you're a-"

"No," Nixie interrupted. "They don't know what I am. We've been friends for ages and I've kept my secret. I can't ever risk them knowing," Nixie lied. She had to protect her friends, Zac couldn't know about them. She was fine keeping Zac off her shoulders but she was sure the other's wouldn't be able to if he ever found out.

"Well, at least we're on the same page here, now go, I'll find a way to take care of Joe," Zac told her with a smile.

"Thank you Zac," Nixie said quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear it. She refused to lose to a merman, especially the one who was the cause for her entire pod to have to leave Mako.

Up on the surface, Joe was studying his fish finder. It showed that Nixie had swam away and that there was still one there. "David, one of them's gone, there's just one left!"

"Well, at least one of them is safe," David murmured.

"Was it Zac or Nixie who escaped?" Sirena wondered. Her question was answered moments later when Nixie came up behind them, trying not to act suspicious.

"Hey guys," Nixie said cheerfully, putting on a fake smile.

"Nixie!" Sirena launched into a hug with her.

"Sirena, I'm fine, I was only gone for like half an hour, not like anything happened to me," she replied, trying to lead on that it was best not to try and make any note of this incident.

"Did Zac see you?" Lyla whispered.

"Yes, what's worse is he got me out of the net that I was stuck on," Nixie mumbled.

"He helped you?" Lyla asked surprised. "Why would he?"

"He said he didn't want to risk any one of us being discovered," Nixie replied.

"And he didn't say anything about us?" Sirena questioned.

"I managed to throw him off by saying that you were just my friends and that I'd kept my secret from you so far," Nixie briefly explained. "Speaking of all this though, where is Zac now?"

"David, that things still on my screen," Joe called."It's still there, jump in and take a look would you bro?"

"Moron, I can't believe I'm related to that," David said in disappointment.

"If you won't jump in, then I will," Joe remarked, stripping off his shirt and preparing to jump into the water.

"I tried my best," David said, walking away slightly, turning around. The three girls heard a splash noise and looked around to see that Joe had jumped into the water.

"What now?" Sirena asked worried. "Zac's still down there," she whispered to her friends.

When Joe jumped into the water and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a blue fin, caught against the netting of the dock's leg. His eyes slowly traversed it upwards, his face full of shock and and eyes widened when he saw who it was Zac. He was staring right at Zac and he had a tail!

When Zac had gotten Nixie out of the netting and tried to turn around, he found that his own tail had gotten caught in the netting and now he was the stuck one.

Joe quickly surfaced, coughing out any water that might have entered his body and climbed back aboard his boat as fast as he could, his eyes full of scared looks.

"Well, what did you see down there?" David asked since Joe looked so shook up.

"Zac," he replied breathlessly. "It was Zac, and he had a tail!"

"Ugh!" David said in annoyance. "Am I seriously still related to you?"

Moments later than when David had said that did Zac free himself from the net and swam off out into the Ocean. Right now, he needed to get away, far away from Joe.

Joe looked over to see his Fish Finder beeping away as the figure he now knew as Zac began swimming away. "He freed himself?" Joe asked.

"Look Joe just leave it," David said to him before he noticed something odd. The last time he had seen Zac was when he looked at the image on his brother's boat and then went zooming off somewhere. In between this time, another 'fish' had appeared and one of them left. He had to find out for himself, but he would need his brother's help. Man did the thought of asking that shake him to the core.

"Joe, take me with you. I want to find out for myself," David said bravely.

Joe actually smiled at him and pulled his boat over to where David was. "Glad you're finally seeing reason with me bro!"

David put on a fake smile and hopped on board. "Alright, any of you ladies coming with us to find out what the heck is going on?" Joe asked them.

"Sorry, we're going to stay behind. After all, Sirena still doesn't feel well so we're just gonna take care of her," Nixie thought up quickly and nodded her head after saying it all.

David and Joe prepared the Fish Finder to track the now moving 'Zac' and drove their boat out of the canal.

Zac could hear their boat revving from up above him.

The chase, was on.

* * *

**Nexus: This chapter actually took a little bit of a spin at the end there. What I put wasn't what I had planned originally, but I like this better so I'm sticking with it. Besides, next chapter we now have a chase on our hands. Joe's seen Zac and Zac knows what Nixie is without their being any kind of betrayely, yet...**

**Well, hoped anyone who read it liked it. Next chapter we should see some movement into the story and also meet our anti-protagonist of this little story.**

**Please, leave a review... It would be nice...**


	3. The Talk

**Nexus: Well, thanks to the guy called "Guest" who said he wanted more! Here it is! And a lovely shout out to all of the followers and favers thus far!**

**And we all know that I don't own Mako Mermaids...**

* * *

Chapter 3: The Talk

It had been a whole hour of swimming out in the open Ocean and Zac was still on the run from Joe and David. Their boat didn't seem to want to be running out of fuel any time soon.

After a while, David had got suspicious of something. "Joe? You said before that there were two objects in the water right?"

"Yeah," he replied, wondering where David was going with this.

"And you said you saw- Zac... with a tail," David choked out.

"Yeah," Joe replied once again.

"Work it out! If the two figures were the same shape, then there was _someone_ else down there besides Zac, most likely the one you first gave chase to," David explained to his dimwitted brother.

"So you're trying to tell me you think that the first thing I chased was something like Zac?" Joe asked, slowly realising that David might be right.

"When you consider the facts and what we know, it seems highly likely," David replied.

After a few more minutes, it was becoming clear where Zac was leading the two boys, he was leading them to Mako Island, an area where he could hide himself.

"Why would he lead us out to Mako of all places?" Joe asked himself. Suddenly his fish finder showed him that Zac had stopped moving and was surfacing in front of them.

"David, he's coming up!" Joe called to his distracted brother. David was sort of looking forward to this. Was his brother really telling the truth the entire time? Did all the strange facts really add up?

Zac surfaced in front of their boat, staying far enough back so that David and Joe could see him. All the two could do was stare at him in amazement. The Zac that they knew had always been human and never suddenly grew a fish tail when in water.

"So, how long do you two plan on carrying chasing me?" Zac asked them.

"We'll stop chasing you when you talk to us about this," Joe demanded. "Why don't you just come up and talk to us Zac?"

"How do I know I can trust you?" He asked with an evil glare. "You work for a fishing company, what's to say you won't rat me out huh?"

"Zac, listen to me. We just, want to talk. Nothing else," David told him with a soft a voice as he could. They needed to earn Zac's trust so that he would tell them everything that was going on.

"Why should I talk?" Zac asked, diving back under the water, flashing the end of his tail to David and Joe. Now David believed it all.

"Okay, so he really does have a tail," David told himself, still unable to believe it.

"We should still chase him," Joe said, putting his boat back into gear and began following Zac again.

Under the waves, Zac was trying to find a place to hide. He could think of only one place, he remembered spotting a hole in the rocks around the back of the island, but he never investigated it. Now was a good time to, it might have lead to somewhere.

"Why is he trying to take us around the back of Mako?" David asked himself.

"Probably to try and hide or get us into some sort of danger," Joe replied for him. "Well, we're only gonna find out one way."

Joe's boat followed Zac around the back of Mako until Zac's image began disappearing off of the radar. And the boat couldn't go forward any more since it was facing the back end of the Volcano. "Great, can't go forward and the Fish Finder's lost him!" Joe whined.

"It's not over. If you want me to scope, I'll scope," David offered.

"You, scope it?" Joe asked with a 'really?' look on his face.

David then stood up and got on the edge of the boat. "You may be the slightly better looking brother but I'm the brother who's better at swimming in the open Ocean." And with that said, David dived into the Ocean waters to see if he could work out where Zac was.

Joe just stared at him in amazement for standing up to him. "Maybe he's not as bad a brother as I first thought."

Down in the water below, the Cave that Zac had swum into happened to be the Moon Pool. "I recognise this place," Zac said slowly to himself. He had a flash back of the night he found that cave. He could see himself falling through the cave's upper floor and into this very pool of water in the heart of the inactive Volcano. "This is where I was transformed."

He pulled himself out with great effort and dried off, returning to a human form. Not long after he'd done so, did a head pop out of the Moon Pool.

David had eventually found an opening in the rocks that almost looked like it would lead to a cave. When he surfaced, he took a big gulp of air. He knew he should have surfaced once before swimming through the entrance. He looked up to see Zac standing on the floor of this cave like area.

The two looked at each other in silence for a long time before Zac finally spoke up. "Are you going to stay in the water forever?"

"Are you going to pull me out? Doesn't the fish tail appear if you get wet?" David retaliated.

"Maybe," Zac replied turning his back to David. This was one of the one times that he really didn't want to talk to anyone, especially about the recent incidents and the effects that followed it.

"Zac, why don't you just talk to me?" David asked. "It's not like there's anything to hide any more. I know, Joe knows. But I promise you, I won't tell anyone about this."

Zac actually turned around and looked at David. It didn't seems like he was trying to trick anyone, he seemed really sincere about all of this.

"You know, if most people found out their friend turned into a fish when they touched water, they would probably flee or try to find some way to exploit it. But you don't seem to be inclined to do either of the two do you?" Zac questioned.

David just smiled at him. "As I said, I just want to talk. And instead of me coming out, how about you come in?"

Zac didn't see any reason to hide his full self from David. "You probably wanna move to the side though."

As soon as David did, Zac dived into the water and surfaced quickly. The second he did, his clothing melted away and his tail took its rightful place. He swam over to the side of the pool, where David had situated himself and rested his arms on the small ledge.

David didn't even know what to say. "How?" Was all he could he ask.

"I'm not 100% sure myself. About a week ago when me and Cam camped here on the night of the full moon. I saw a strange cave further up the Island. I remember seeing this symbol on the wall.. and the second I touched it, I found myself fall through the floor and into this pool in the Volcano below. Next thing I knew, I was waking up on the beach and after coming back, that's when I found out that I was now a merman," Zac explained.

"And when you were in the water, there was another figure just like you," David hinted.

"No point in hiding it, it was a mermaid," Zac replied. He thought it was best not to say that the mermaid was Nixie, it was bad enough that David and Joe had found about him. Cam wasn't too much of a worry right now.

David just looked dumbfounded. "It's not just you? There are others out there?"

"And god knows how many as well," Zac added.

The two sat there in silence for another minute before Zac could sense someone coming up from the entrance as well.

"Joe," David said slightly surprised. He hadn't of thought that his brother would have eventually tried to find him. Joe's face was struck with amazement, unable to take his eye off of Zac's tail. So Zac lifted it up slightly, splashing it down and sent a wall of water flying right at Joe. David just laughed whilst his brother sputtered out the water.

"Ha ha, very funny!" He joked swimming over to the side where his brother was, still unable to take his eyes off of Zac. Zac used his powers to lift a small ball of water out of the pool and flung it at Joe's face, David just laughing again.

"Can you stop doing that?" Joe asked nicely but was very annoyed at the same time.

"When you can stop staring sure," Zac replied, giving him a quick smile.

Joe eventually managed to calm his inner self down. "Zac, what exactly are you?"

Didn't take Zac long to reply to that. "A merman. A myth."

"How? Joe asked in the same way David did. Oh yeah, they may not seem it at first but they are definitely brothers.

Zac went on to explain the same thing he told David only but a few minutes ago. Including the fact that Joe had been following a mermaid this entire time.

Zac swam around to the exit/ entrance of the cave, making sure that David and Joe couldn't leave until they agreed to his laws. "Before you even get to leave this place, I need you both to promise me that you will never ever tell a single soul about me!"

David and Joe both nodded their heads. "Is there anyone else besides us who knows?" Joe asked out of pure questioning.

"Cam, since he was with me the night it all happened. It seemed only fair that I told him," Zac replied. "We should be going now, don't want people to think we've been gone for too long now do we?" Zac asked, diving and swimming out of the cave. He just couldn't resist slapping his fin on the way down and soaked David and Joe again.

"I thought he said he wouldn't do that again?!" Joe shouted in anger. David just shook his head and dived into the water, swimming back out to his boat, Joe following a moment later.

"Zac, are you coming up or will you swim?" David asked.

Zac pulled himself a few rungs up the ladder that was on the side of the boat, until his tail was out of the water. He used one hand to hang on and another hand to dry himself off using his powers. Once he was dry, he climbed up the rest of the ladder and took a seat at the back of the boat. He even used his powers to briefly dry off David and Joe and their clothes without setting them on fire. When he'd first practised that power, he'd accidentally set a t-shirt on fire. He was more careful from then on.

As they drove back to the mainland, David and Joe asked a lot of questions about what it was like and were even more surprised when they found out that when he transformed. it re-writ his bodies functions, allowing him to breathe underwater.

After a good 15 minutes, they were back on land. David and Joe docked off Zac at his house in the Canal and drove off. Man, that had been one long experience. All the time, Zac wondered if Nixie would ever tell Lyla and Sirena about herself. And also, if she would ever tell them about himself. Of course, we all know that they all know what Zac is. He walked inside his home and immediately flopped on his bed, falling asleep not long after.

* * *

**- At a science lab somewhere -**

"Hey Joanna! The scanner you put in the reef got a shot of something rather odd," a lab assistant called.

The woman named Joanna walked over to the monitor and she herself was shocked by what she saw. Dr. Joanna Fischer was a Marine Biologist who liked to study fish around the reef. She'd recently ventured out towards Mako and put in 4 scanners around the area. One of them was placed near the entrance to the moon pool. These scanners would regularly scope out the area and file an image to the monitors back at the lab when every now and then. They showed clear back outlines, like much more advanced versions of Joe's Fish Finder, they needed the shots to be clearer for research purposes.

What the scanner had got was a decent shot of Zac swimming out of the cave. In fact in had two. One when he had his arms out in front, and one when his hands were out, clearly showing arms and hands. Word's couldn't even describe how excited Joanna was.

"Do you have any idea what this is Harry?" Joanna asked, unable to take her eyes off the images that she'd gotten.

"I think I do," Harry replied.

"We've found ourselves a mermaid," Joanna said to herself happily. As a Marine Biologist, find any proof of the myth of mermaids was sure to draw shed loads of attention. And if they could even capture the mermaid, they could make a fortune.

"Harry! Get the diving team to get ready to set out a trap. Find the area around Mako that the scanner got these images from and place some nets there. Set a device that tracks when really large objects are around the area, just so I can see when the mermaid comes under the nets and grab it," Joanna explained to her assistant.

Harry then rushed off to get all of the orders she had just layed down done.

"This is going to be fun," Joanna laughed.

* * *

**Nexus: It's all gonna kick off next chapter! It'll take me a little while to get the chapter done since there is quite a bit to go into this compared to this relatively short chapter**

**Zac: We hope everyone enjoyed this chapter though, and we'll see you all next time**


	4. The Capture

**Nexus: It's funny. Just before I was about to put this chapter out 2 minutes ago, I checked the reviews and it got bumped up to 5. Thank you ever so much to CopperFlash for his keep up the good work review and a REALLY MASSIVE THANK YOU to ObsessedwReading and your 3 reviews. Just for you, I dedicate this chapter to ya! ;)**

**You know the drill, I don't own Mako Mermaids...**

* * *

Chapter 4: The Capture

Well, it had been two weeks since the incident with Nixie, David and Joe. Between that time, Zac's pool party had Lyla and Sirena discovering his secret, Nixie playing along to cover up her 'own secret' according to Zac. As for Dr. Joanna Fischer, her search for her mermaid was about to kick off once again. She'd had trouble getting nets out at first and after two weeks, she'd finally done it. The only thing to do now was to report the images her scanners had captured to the news. That was just the beginning to her fame.

Zac was laying down on his bed at home, thinking over everything that had gone on.

"Zac?" A voice called followed by a knock on his door.

"Come in," Zac replied.

His dad opened the door, which made Zac shift to the edge of his bed. "Everything okay?"

"There's something on the news you might be interested in," his dad began. "It's pretty amazing if you ask me?"

"What is it?" Zac asked, wondering what could be 'so amazing' that his dad was asking him to come inside the main house to see it.

"You'll come to the main house if you want to see it," his dad teased, leaving to rush back to see the news himself.

Zac's mind was still rather muddled. Nonetheless, he went over to the main house and entered the lounge, his mum and dad sitting down with eyes glued to the TV screen.

"And if you didn't catch it already we'll say it again. Dr. Joanna Fischer of Gold Coast Marine Biology has reported images proving what everyone thought was once a myth," a reporter on the news announced.

Zac quickly took a seat on a nearby couch and prepared himself for the news to come. What next came on the screen, shook him to the core. It was the two images from the scanners out at Mako, the two images of Zac as a merman swimming out of the Moon Pool entrance, one of them with his arms in front, and one with them to the side, showing his hands, clear proof that this was indeed what everyone thought it was.

"We still can't believe ourselves but we have photo proof of a real life mermaid. Dr. Fischer is doing more research into this phenomenon as we speak and she hopes to have more news by next week at the latest."

Zac couldn't move from the Sofa. He knew by looking at those two images that it was him. He wasn't safe any more. There were Marine Biologists hunting him down and it also put Nixie in danger. Let alone any other mermaids that were out there.

Rob turned around to see Zac in his shocked but frightened looking state. "It comes as a shock to everyone. Something like mermaids really exist out there."

"Yeah," was all Zac could squeak out. He eventually got his body to move and made his way back to his room. He took a seat on his Sofa and buried his head in his hands. What was he going to do about this?

His phone rang. He answered it to hear Cam's shocked voice down the other end. "Zac, we need to talk. Ocean Cafe?"

"Coming now," Zac replied quickly, shutting Cam off and began heading off the Ocean Cafe. If it was about him being on the news, he was not in the mood for Cam's word over it.

* * *

**- At the Ocean Cafe -**

Zac walked in to see Cam sitting down at a table, automatically taking residence on the seat opposite him.

"Explain," Cam said plainly.

"You mean the news?" Zac asked.

"What else would I want to talk about right now," Cam mentioned.

"Good point," Zac said turning his head to look around away from Cam.

"Zac, why were there 2 images of you swimming out at Mako? Cam asked.

"I don't know myself how this Dr. Fischer got images of me. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do right now..." Zac replied.

He'd already told Cam about the day that he found Nixie and that David and Joe knew his secret.

"Wait, when you were out at Mako with David and Joe..." Cam began.

"You think that's when the scanners got me?" Zac asked, slowly realising that Cam might be right.

"You haven't been out to Mako since that time," Cam realised. "But if so, why did it take Dr. Fischer two whole weeks to get the photo's of you out on the news?"

"That's what I don't get," Zac replied, burying his head in his body on the table. When he looked up, David came over to their table with their drinks.

"Thanks David," Cam replied.

David instantly looked at Zac. "I saw the news."

"Yeah, I'm in trouble right now," Zac said.

"You're telling me. Luckily, Joe's business has links with Dr. Fischer's Marine Biology business. Maybe he can convince her or at least take her off the trail of you," David explained.

"It's a nice though, but if you knew there was a merman out there, wouldn't you go to no limits or length's to get more proof of it's existence?" Zac replied.

"I guess so," David thought. "Sorry, I don't know what else to do."

"I think I have a plan in mind. It's risky but it's a start," Zac replied. "I just go out and destroy all the scanners. That will slow them down at least."

"Are you nuts!?" Both David and Cam shouted, gaining a quick look from everyone around the Cafe.

"Nothing to worry about," David called, everyone going back to normal.

"Zac, you can't be serious about this," Cam said, still not seeing how this could ever be a good plan.

"Oh I can be," Zac said, standing up and finishing his drink off quickly. "As a matter of fact, I think I'll begin now." He then walked out of the Cafe doors and walked down to a deserted part of the beach, diving off into the waters and speeding off towards Mako.

* * *

**- At Rita's -**

The girl's themselves had just seen the news on the TV along with Rita.

"Oh this is not good," all three girls said at the same time.

"No, it's not," Rita replied, switching off the TV.

"What do we do Rita?" Nixie asked worriedly.

"We wait, and hope Zac doesn't go back out to Mako. If need be, convince him not to go swimming for a while," Rita explained.

"What about getting him into the Moon Pool on a full moon? You said it might strip his powers," Lyla questions.

"That's a long shot. And even so, we can risk him going anywhere near Mako. Even you'll have to refrain from going to Mako, maybe even the whole Ocean. After all, this is a Marine Biologist we're talking about, she'll have the whole ocean covered for research and now mermaid hunting." Rita stood up from her seat and walked over to the fridge to get a drink.

"Maybe one of us should go out to Mako and check it out quickly," Nixie whispered.

"I'll go, I can stay invisible the longest," Lyla spoke up, still in a whisper mode so that Rita didn't hear them.

Nixie was about to rebel against it before Sirena stopped her. "She's right Nixie. From experience Lyla can stay invisible the longest, she's had more practice than us over it."

Nixie didn't like it one bit but she knew she'd have to go along with it. "Okay fine. Lyla, go, now."

Lyla stood up and began walking out the house, calling to Rita on her way out. "I'm just going for a walk."

Rita turned around, about to say something to Lyla, but she was already gone. "Um, is it best that she goes out by herself.

"She's wanted some alone time recently," Sirena lied. "And even so, she can take care of herself."

"I guess you're right," Rita replied, taking another sip of her drink.

* * *

**- Out at Mako -**

Zac wasn't dead close to the Mako shore, he made sure he wasn't too close just in case. After a while of swimming around, scanner hunting, he'd found one. He picked up the scanner and looked at it in detail. He noticed a switch at the back and flipped it off, shutting the scanner and it's wi-fi down.

**- At Dr. Fischer's Lab -**

"Joanna! One of our scanners just went dead!" Harry called to Joanna. "You might wanna look at the final shot it got."

Joanna walked over to the monitor which had the final shot on it. It showed Zac's head and body, his arms out in front of him, right when he was shutting the scanner down.

"Damn thing's found the scanners," she said to herself. Now was the time to put her plan into action. She knew that the mermaid would find the other scanners and would most likely find all four if they found that one so easily. "Harry, get the boat set. I'll need a team of 9 men and myself. I need you to stay here and look at which scanners that thing is shutting down so we can work out when they'll stop at the one with the nets around it." Joanna had planned on the mermaid finding the one with the nets near it, not the other ones. But it still worked out for her, the mermaid would hunt down the other ones and Joanna would bag herself a ticket to fame and ever lasting glory in the science world.

**- Back to Mako -**

Zac had found and shut down two other scanners. He hadn't headed out towards the area of the Moon Pool but figured that surely, there would have been a scanner out there if there were three other ones out on the East, North and West sides of Mako, leaving the Moon Pool for the South back end of the Island.

Meanwhile, Lyla had been following him, flicking on and off with her invisibility. Right now, she was following Zac around the South Side to the Moon Pool. She didn't expect him to check there. After all, she thought he didn't knew where the Moon Pool's entrance was.

**- On a boat, just above the Moon Pool Entrance -**

"Joanna, scanner's got him in sight, he's coming over the nets soon," Harry reported from a feed in the Lab.

"Thanks Harry," Joanna replied, shutting off the link feed, getting focused for the capture.

**- Below -**

Zac had just come into range of the net and had spotted the scanner. He hadn't spotted the net that had masked itself on the floor.**  
**

Lyla, who was swimming behind him though, just noticed the net as soon as he grabbed the scanner. She could see that it was slowly rising. She had to do something, she couldn't afford Zac getting stuck in that net right now. She did the only thing she could do, call his name and hope for the best.

The nets began rising even faster.

"Zac!" Lyla screamed.

Zac immediately zipped around, dropping the scanner in his hand, words unable to say what he saw before him. He didn't have time to think about that though, as the net that was rising, suddenly shot and clasped itself around Zac. It was pretty tight as well, the gaps in between being much smaller than a normal net. That Marine Biologist had planned for this to happen. And Zac fell for it. He knew he wasn't going to get out of the net and focused his attention back to Lyla who was now swimming towards her.

"You," he said with a low growly voice.

"Listen, I'm sorry for lying to you," she began before being interrupted by Zac.

"Sorry doesn't cover it. I levelled about me, and you were lying to me the whole time! I know Nixie's like you and I wouldn't be wrong if I hazarded a guess that Sirena's one too!" Zac shouted at her.

"Zac I can explain," Lyla pleaded.

Zac didn't know what to do. He was about to be discovered by a Marine Biologist and there was no way out right now, no powers that could help him. But at the same time, he was dead furious with Lyla.

"Lyla, just go," he said plainly.

"But Zac you-"

"Better just me being discovered than you as well! Now just go would you. After all, you've done enough recently," Zac interrupted. He was still furious beyond belief with her but in this situation, there wasn't time for all this right now.

All Lyla could do was float and watch in guilt as Zac was raised out of the water.

When Zac was lifted out of the water, he could feel the net really digging into his skin with the tight netting and small gaps. Man did it hurt.

"Bring it in," Joanna ordered. The man controlling the net pulled it over towards the boat and hovered it over a tank that Joanna had brought with her. The net collapsed and Zac fell straight into the tank, rather pleased to be back in water for a minute. It would help with the pain of those rope marks he now had.

Everyone on the boat gathered around the tank to see the creature that all of their hard work had got them.

Most people just stood there in shock, staring wide eyed at Zac in the tank.

"Well well," Joanna began. "Turns out it wasn't a mermaid I'd found. It's something much rarer... a merman."

Zac just look up at Joanna and glared at her. "Great," he said to himself quietly.

Little did he know that Joanna had a speaker in the tank that amplified sound and everyone on the boat heard him say it.

Even Joanna was taken back by it. "And it speaks... This is so much more than I had first anticipated."

The longer she looked at the creatures face, the more she couldn't help but think that she recognised this person's face.

She had a small flash back of being at Dr. Rob's house and seeing a boy sitting over in the corner of the room. The same boy with a face like the one that was now in the tank.

"I know you," Joanna said slowly. "Dr. Rob Blakely's son."

"Zac Blakely!?" One of the men on board blurted out.

Joanna just looked back to him, his face full of worry when his name had been called out like that. "So you are Zac Blakely. A normal human boy who I now see before me as a merman. A creature that everyone thought was a myth."

"What do you want with me?" Zac asked.

"Everything. I wanna know how you became like this, your inner matrix, the ability to speak. And, if there are others out there. Research from you should give us some sort of clues as to if there are others out there.

All of a sudden, Joanna reached to the side for a syringe of something and plunged her hand into the tank, jabbing into the back of Zac's neck and releasing the fluid that was inside of it.

Within seconds, Zac could see black spots everywhere. And a few seconds later, he was completely out.

"Boy, get ready to drive to the Lab. And not our usual one, I mean the one just off the Gold Coast, Experiment Centre Forty Two," Joanna commanded.

As the ship was driving towards their location, Joanna looked back to see her prize passed out in the tank.

"Zac Blakely, my new test subject. Things are going to get rather interesting around the Gold Coast now.

* * *

**Nexus: Well, that's chapter 4**

**Lyla: Did you just give me, Nixie, Sirena and Rita screen time?**

**Nexus: Yeah, after all, I needed you to be Zac's initiator. And besides, you're the only ones besides those on the boat who knows where Zac is/ what's happened to him.**

**Lyla: Do we get a bigger role next chapter?**

**Nexus: Maybe, I'm not saying anything right now.**

**I'll be thankful to people who leave reviews again!**


	5. The Research at EC42 begins

**Nexus: My word, from 2 reviews to 11 in just 1 chapter, I am impressed... A big thank you out there to everyone who's reviewed this story thus far!**

**And so as promised, Chapter 5!**

**Also, this is going to be the last chapter you get for a week since I'm going on Holiday and won't have my laptop with me. So I promise I'll upload Chapter 6 for you all next Saturday, that'll be the 2nd November.**

* * *

Chapter 5: The Research at EC42 begins

It was getting late back at Rita's and Lyla still hadn't returned yet.

"I thought you said she was just going out for a walk?" Rita asked worriedly.

"We thought she was just doing that too," Sirena lied. She couldn't let Rita know where Lyla had really been. But she was really worried that Lyla hadn't returned yet.

Rita decided she needed some fresh air and went out to her balcony.

"Nixie, you know I don't like keeping secrets from Rita," Sirena told her.

"I don't like it either but we've got to cover for Lyla," Nixie replied. "She would never be out this long though."

"She could just be resting out at Mako," Sirena suggested.

"Yeah, or she could have been captured by that Marine Biologist instead of Zac!" Nixie retaliated.

"We can't even risk going out to Mako. We don't know what could have been set up out there," Sirena said.

"So what? We just sit here like lazy starfish and wait?" Nixie asked.

"We have no choice," Sirena replied.

Rita walked back inside and felt a little better. "Since you girls can't go out at Mako, you'll have to sleep here."

"In the Grotto?" Nixie asked incredulously. No way was she sleeping there.

"I've got a spare room upstairs with two beds you can sleep in," Rita explained.

"Beds?" Nixie and Sirena asked, not knowing what they were.

"Big fluffy things you sleep on, they'll be comfier than the ledge in the Moon Pool trust me. I only have 2 though, that's one of the reasons I ask you all to stay at Mako."

Rita lead the two girls upstairs and got them settled down.

"Well, I'll leave you girls be then. If you need anything, you know where everything is. Goodnight," Rita told them, turning off the light switch, leaving a lamp in between the two beds lit.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Sirena asked her friend.

"Please, Lyla isn't even afraid of sharks. No way is a Marine Biologist going to get to her, if she has got her of course," Nixie reassured.

Both girls were feeling rather sleepy and turned of the lamp, falling asleep not long after.

* * *

**- Back out on the boat -**

"Dr. Fischer, EC42 is in sight!" The man steering the boat called to her.

She looked away from the unconscious Zac and saw that EC42 was indeed in sight. "Pull up around the back. We'll go through the doc's secret passage. No way is anyone seeing my new project just yet." She took of her lanyard and tossed it over to another man near the boat's driver. "Use it to get access into the passage. Code EC42DJF417."

"Yes ma'am!"

Whilst the two at the front of the ship concentrated on driving and opening the doc's passage, Joanna and the other seven men began setting up the crane's hook. With that, once they were inside EC42, they could easily transport him into another tank.

Once the passage was open, Joanna took control of the boat and steered it through the doc's passage into the experiment room where she wanted Zac to be. It had a nice tank for him to stay in and then plenty of open space for experimenting.

Now that they were there, the men hoisted up the crane's hook to the lifting machine and carried Zac's body out of the small tank and into the larger one, his body sinking straight to the bottom.

"Just how much of that knock out liquid did you let enter his body?" One of the men asked, seeing as how Zac was still unconscious.

"Enough so that he sleeps until tomorrow morning. Also, I'll be doing the first lot of simple experiments by myself," she told him.

"Huh? By yourself? Are you sure that's a good idea Joanna?" The man asked.

"John, I'll be fine. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything to me. For now, get the boat out of here and have the small tank ready to be taken back to EC1, my main lab," Joanna commanded.

"If you say so," John mumbled. "Also, why have him here at EC42 and not EC1?"

"Everyone knowns from the media that I've been hunting a mermaid. The press would be all over EC1 and I wouldn't get a break. Hardly anyone knows of EC42 since it's so remote and not even on the official EC list," Joanna explained. "Also, make sure to tell Harry I'm here."

John took in her words and got ready to get the boat out of the lab. Once the crane's hook was detached and the smaller tank emptied, they were almost ready to go. John tossed Joanna's lanyard back to her. "And the pass code to get out?"

"Use your key, Code EC42DJG829."

John took the boat back out of the passage along with the crew and used the code to get outside. He locked it behind him and drove the boat off to a nearby docking area. The boat was to be left there for the night whilst the men stayed in a nearby hotel that Joanna owned. They had to all sleep somewhere and it was only a small one anyway.

Back with Joanna, she still couldn't stop staring at Zac.

"I may seem like I'm a mean woman, but it's only an act," she told him even though he wouldn't hear her. She stood up from where she was on the floor and exited the building through the front entrance using her Key Code. She too went to her hotel for the night. _*I hope he'll be alright in there.*_

* * *

**- The next morning -**

Zac could feel something stirring around him as his eyes flickered open. Once they were open, he realised that he was still surrounded by water. He floated up from off of wherever he was and looked around. "Where on earth am I?" He asked himself.

"You're in a tank inside Room 347 in EC42," a voice called out.

Zac immediately shot around 180 degrees to see the woman who'd captured him. She swam over in her direction as far as he could, before being stopped by the glass wall of the tank. "You..." he growled.

Joanna stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to Zac. "It took you long enough to wake up. Maybe I did give you a little bit too much of that knock out liquid. Oh well, that aside, you're awake now," Joanna rambled. "Where do we even begin?"

"How about really explaining what you want with me?" Zac demanded. "It can't just be for the science can it?"

Joanna sighed. "It is, mainly for the science. But there are a few other reasons why I have you here. This is for myself to begin with, I've always been interested in mermaids outside of science. Another reason being that Dr. Blakely had said to me that his son had been acting weird and avoiding water like the plague as of recent. Only issue was back then I had no idea who were until John confirmed it was you for me. This reason only sprung up once your identity was revealed," Joanna explained.

Zac then sank down and sat on the tank floor, burying his head in his arms.

"But why me?" He asked himself.

Joanna sat on the floor to get level with him. "Listen to me Zac. I may seem like a ruthless cold-hearted woman in front of my team and colleagues but I have to be that way. In science, we can't afford to be light hearted. This is why I prefer doing research on my own. I feel that getting to know something better and experimenting alone tends to have better results. Because, there is no pressure."

Zac looked up at her, and he could see her face wasn't lying. She wasn't a bad person, just forced to be because of her love for science. "So, you'll be doing these experiments alone then?"

Joanna looked rather surprised. "You'll agree to do them?"

"I don't have much of a choice. And I'll tell you now, I never wanted any of this to happen to me in the first place," Zac told her. "Me, like this, was an accident."

"How, could it have been an accident," Joanna asked curiously.

"It was about 3 weeks ago, on the night of a full moon. Me and my friend were camping on Mako before school started again. I went off to explore and found a strange cave, the entrance only ever appeared that night though. Inside, there was this, dial on the wall, and when I touched it, the floor beneath me sank and I fell directly down into the Volcano's pool. The next day, I woke up on the beach. And once I got back home, lots of weird things started happening. I found out I could move water with my hand, and when I fell in the dock area outside the Ocean Cafe, it happened. I was, suddenly a merman," Zac explained.

Joanna couldn't help being curious about what the accident was, but she'd never imagined that Zac would have given her a big an explanation as what he just did. She just sat there staring.

"I know it's hard to take in," Zac said.

"It is a little, a human, who when he touches water, turns into a merman. Anyone would find that information hard to take in," Joanna replied eventually.

"I did at first. I'm still not fully used to the concept of being able to breathe underwater yet. It's just... amazing," Zac thought out loud.

"One can only imagine," Joanna said, standing up. "If you don't mind, there's something I would like to test first before I begin my extensive research."

"What is it?" Zac asked.

"You said it yourself, when you touch water, you're like this. So when you're dry, you're human. I want to see this transformation for myself," Joanna asked nicely.

"Only on one small condition," Zac said.

"The condition being?" Joanna asked.

"I will let you be free to research any findings about me and release them to the press, as long as any clear images of me that might reveal me aren't shown and that you hide my identity. My only other side condition, is that after all your research is done, you'll let me go and be free," Zac offered.

Joanna knew that this wasn't going to be easy. The way she thought about it, she would be able to get her research, get her fortune and fame, and be settled for life! It didn't hurt to let Zac go afterwards and she never had any intentions of releasing his name or face into the wild.

"Alright, I promise I'll let you go once my research is done, it might be a while though. And I won't reveal your face or name to the public," Joanna replied in a soft tone.

Zac was reassured by this. The one woman who wanted to do research on him was being the most reasonable one possible and also the kindest. He felt very lucky, and he knew that the sooner the research was through with, the quicker he would get out. By now, any resentment towards Joanna was gone.

"Dr. Fischer?" He asked.

"Zac, just call me Joanna, no need for formalities now," she told him.

"Right, Joanna then. You're not as bad as I first perceived you to be," Zac said with a smile.

He swam up to the top of the tank, waiting for Joanna to open the latch. When she was up there and opened it, Zac dragged himself out fully onto the glass panel and began using his powers to dry himself off.

"What are you-?" Joanna began to asked.

"It's a power, heating water to steam dry myself," Zac explained.

After about another minute, Zac dried off and reverted to human form. He stood up and began stretching. "Man, it feels good to have legs back once in a while."

Joanna was still in shock. One minute fish tail, the next, drying all the water from his body and reverting back to normal Zac. "Woah," was all she could say.

"That's only a triffid of what I can do," Zac told her quickly, climbing down the ladder to get away from the tank.

Once he and Joanna were on the ground again, Joanna was ready to begin.

"Oh, when you say touching water makes you transform, how much water?" Joanna asked.

"Just a little drop will work," Zac replied.

"Really? Only one little drop will cause the transformation? Doesn't that make this a very deep burden in life?" Joanna asked.

"It does yes. But it's not all too hard to avoid. There are one or two times where you just can't evade it," Zac explained briefly before taking a seat in the nearby chair. "Now, you going to test this or not?"

Joanna nodded and walked over to her table, picking up a syringe with some water in it. She placed it over Zac's arms and very carefully let one drop of water fall onto it. All but a few seconds later, the tail was back.

"Okay, it really doesn't take much," Joanna eventually said, as Zac steam dried himself back to normal.

"Told you," he replied as he stood up and began walking back over to the tank.

During that time, Joanna got a call. "Yes, who is it?" Her personality completely changed from soft to harsh.

She listened to the voice down the other end. "Oh hey John."

"WHAT!?" She screamed after listening to what he said.

"Please Joanna try to understand. I know you like more time to work on your test subjects but, we need to get the scans done soon," John told her.

"Ugh! Guess I don't have a choice do I?" she asked.

"And one more thing," John began. "Reporters began bombarding EC1 early hours of the morning. They want to speak to you so you'll have to come back and dispel them for a while."

"If it keeps them quiet then I really don't have a choice," she replied sadly.

"Haha, knew you couldn't keep that harsh tone up forever! Later Joanna," John teased, cutting her off there and then.

"Why Jon you little!" She shouted as he cut her off. She threw the phone back into the receiver.

"What was that all about?" Zac asked.

"Bad news. The centre wants scans done soon, of your inner matrix. They'll need one of you as a human, and one of you as a merman, so that we have a comparison to work off of. Part two of the bad news, I need to go back to EC1 and get these damn reporters off my back for now. Means dispelling them off of the case of you and setting up security forces to stop them from trying to do this again," Joanna explained.

Zac looked down at the floor sadly. "I see."

Joanna looked back at him. "You just have to be strong. And believe that you'll get through this. I know it means giving in, but the sooner you get in and out of this the better."

"Weren't you then one who wanted to capture me?" Zac asked confused.

"That was until I learnt two things. That I'd gotten something rarer, and that you weren't born a merman, you were only transformed into one. The boys at the lab want you keep you longer than I plan on letting you stay for. Once all the research _I _want to do is out of the way, you'll be free to go."

Zac's face eventually broke out into a smile. "I guess it's not as bad as it seems after all."

Joanna smiled too and walked towards the exit door to the lab, swiping her key and inputting her code. "I suggest getting back in the tank for now. You can tell the boys during the scanning about the whole transformation part. Don't give out the details you gave me though. Keep those a secret from them. And, just co-operate with them. They may seem a little more ruthless than me, but deep down, they have a soft side. Especially John."

Zac climbed up the ladder and dived back into the tank, swimming down in time to see Joanna leave. She turned around and waved good bye as the doors closed, Zac waving back to her.

He swam down right to the bottom and got comfy. He finally had just a little bit of time to think about Nixie and Lyla. And Sirena too presumably. How could they just forget to tell him that they were mermaids after they 'found out' about him at the pool party. They knew right from the start what had happened to Zac, they wouldn't have acted so strangely before. They completely changed once the secret 'was out.' Nothing made sense to him right now, why would they lie to him. What was such a big deal about all of it?

* * *

**- Out on a boat headed to EC1 -**

"Hope he's gonna be alright in there," Joanna thought to herself as she drove towards her main lab. There was a lot to go over. Once she got back, she would need to study the scans of his matrix and compare results. When she found them, she would take a scale sample and see the transformation between scale and skin. She would record the transformation and study each little part of it in details under a microscope.

She pulled her boat up in the dock and began pushing her way through the crowds to the locked doors of EC1.

"All you reporters out there listen up!" Joanna ordered. The whole crowd went from being rowdy to dead silent. "Very good."

Everyone was anxiously waiting to see if she had any new news yet. She had to lie here. "I... don't have any new news so far on the mermaid hunt. But the second we find something, we'll be sure to tell you."

The crowd went a little bit more rowdy. "Please try to understand that science can't be rushed. I know most people are dead excited about this but you will all just have to wait. Until that time, I ask that you leave EC1 and don't come back. Don't think I won't set up top level security to stop you from coming here again!" Joanna explained.

By this time, most of the crowd disparced, leaving just one man behind, the one man Joanna didn't want to see right now.

"Long time no see, Joanna Fischer," the man said.

"Same to you, Rob Blakely," she replied with a sour taste in her mouth. This was not what she wanted.

"Say, you've been around the reefs a lot recently, you haven't seen my son anywhere have you?" He asked worriedly.

Joanna knew she had to lie again. "I'm sorry Rob, I haven't. Why would you ask that anyway?"

"My son's gone missing. He went out after lunch yesterday and hasn't returned home since," Rob began. "If you do see him at all, I'd be most grateful if you told me."

"I'll keep my eye out for him," she promised. Rob then left to go home, dead worried for Zac's safety.

"So, Zac hasn't told his parents about his transformation. With Rob being a doctor, I can see why he wouldn't. This is going to be a pain if I keep Zac at EC42 for too long," Joanna said to herself as she got back on her boat and began driving back to EC42.

* * *

**- All the while, back out at Mako -**

Lyla hadn't left the vicinity of Mako or the Moon Pool ever since Zac was captured. She couldn't face the news about Zac and couldn't go back to Rita and her friends. They would be able to read her too easily and she'd been gone for too long as it was before anyway. She told herself that she would stay out at Mako and not go back to Rita. She would never be able to face her after betraying Zac and not stopping him from being captured. If she hadn't of said anything, there would have been a chance that he might of gotten away.

"No way am I going back, not now," Lyla told herself as she began falling asleep. "Zac, I'm sorry..."

Something snapped within side of her and she re-awoke seconds later, her mind set on one goal as she swam out of the entrance and into the open waters.

* * *

**- Back with Joanna -**

EC42 was back in sight. And all would have been fine, had Joanna's boat not have suddenly caved in on her.

"No, no not now!" She shouted as she bashed the motor, desperately trying to get it working again. "Damn it!"

She could hear something rumbling beneath the boat. She didn't have time to react before something came flying out of the water and took Joanna down into the Ocean waters below.

* * *

**Nexus: That's all you're gonna get for now. Like I said at the start, no new chapter until the 2nd of November...**

**Lyla: Hang on, what happened at the end there?**

**Joanna: What the hell did you do to me?**

**Nexus: I'll leave it up to you guys to guess things. Did Lyla decide to try and take down Joanna or was it something else entirely. Are the two even connected right now, are there goals different, do they ever cross paths.**

**You'll find out when the next chapter comes out in a week xxx**


	6. The Broken Promise

**Nexus: I'm back! Man, Holiday was good and I even managed to plan out what would happen in the remaining chapters of this story. Knowing me, things will change here and there but it's all good for now**

**Zac: So hopefully you'll be nice and let me free soon**

**Nexus: ... lets just skip back to the action with Lyla and Joanna. Here's Chapter 6!**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Broken Promise

**- With Lyla -**

Once Lyla began speeding out of the entrance to the Moon Pool, she felt that something wasn't quite right. Mermaids were born to sense sea creatures, including deadly ones, ones that can threaten and harm them. And it's exactly what Lyla could feel, there was something just off the Gold Coast area that seemed like a rather large threat right about now. She began speeding over in the direction that she sensed the danger coming from.

After a few minutes, she could finally see what she sensed coming into sight. And the event before her was not pretty.

Dr. Joanna Fischer, Lyla recognising her as the Marine Biologist who caught Zac, was struggling to hold onto her breath for dear life as a small sea creature was fighting with her.

"A sea demon!?" Lyla asked herself in shock. Much like mermen, sea demons hadn't been seen for centuries. They were small creatures, no larger than the size of a starfish, that seemed harmless to begin with. Until they began fighting their way inside of mermaids and taking refuge in their bodies, feeding on their life force until they had enough energy to free themselves of the body there were in and became much larger and deadlier, worse than a Great White Shark. They'd been supposedly exterminated and made extinct, but here was one right before Lyla's eyes.

There wasn't much Lyla could do about the situation since Joanna was still kicking. The sea demon managed to get what it finally wanted and ripped Joanna's stomach open using its sharp claws, which knock Joanna completely unconscious, since the demon was using a little bit of its power to not let any of her blood flow out. Whilst it was working its way into Joanna's body and began to try settling, Lyla used her powers to freeze the demons tail and ripped it off of its body. Sadly, the demon still got settled in and sealed up Joanna's stomach, causing her to open her eyes for a second before passing out from extreme pain and need of air.

Lyla immediately swam over to her and surfaced near to where her boat was. She carried Joanna in one hand and used her other hand to pull her boat to the nearby shore.

Once she'd gotten Joanna and the boat on land, she dragged herself up and dried herself, reverting to human form.

"Well done Lyla, look at what you've gone and gotten yourself into," she told herself, giving herself a minor slap on the head for this. She couldn't believe that she'd really just let a sea demon enter a humans body. That demon was going to feed on Joanna's life force until it had enough power to break free and wreak havoc.

There was only one thing she could do right now, leave Joanna where she was and hope she'd be alright, and go back to Rita and her friends and tell them the truth, everything that had happened and has happened thus far.

Wasting no time, she dove back into the waves and headed straight for Mako to get a nights sleep and then when the sun rose, head straight over to Rita and explain.

Just after she'd dove in, Joanna slowly stirred awake and took in her surroundings. "How did I end up here?" She asked herself in disbelief. One minute she remembered being knocked into the water by something and was trying to fight it off before having her stomach ripped open and now she'd woken up on a beach not too far from EC42, with her boat right next to her and her body looked perfectly fine, like nothing

She'd heard the splash and could only assume that someone had helped her. But who? Joanna didn't want to think too much on the matter and quickly got her boat back into the water, the engine and motor working perfectly fine once again, and headed back to EC42, to Zac.

* * *

**- In Rita's Grotto, the next morning -**

Nixie, Sirena and Rita were getting really worried at this point. Lyla had been out for a whole day and hadn't returned at all, things weren't looking up for them.

"Only going out for a walk, yeah right," Rita said as she paced up and down the grotto.

"Look Rita, we need to tell you something," Sirena spoke up.

"Sirena?" Nixie wasn't prepared to get a lifetime lecture from Rita over what was about to be said.

"No, this needs to be said now!" She firmly stated, standing up. "Lyla didn't got out for a walk, she went out to Mako to see if Zac was out there."

"She did what!?" Rita screamed. "What in her right mind was she thinking?"

"Don't blame her completely, we all had the same idea, we let Lyla go though because she's better at invisibility than us," Sirena explained. "Rita we're so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't even begin to cover what might have happened here! For all we know, Lyla might have been captured by going out there," Rita scorned whilst trying to calm herself down.

"And there's a possibility that Zac's been captured, or both of them have, or nothing at all," Nixie added.

"Not helping Nixie," Rita warned her. "I'm going to quickly see Zac's parents, ask them about him. You two stay here and stay put, no more hair brain schemes for now."

Rita hurried out of the grotto through the book case entrance and began rushing over to Zac's house.

Once she got there, she rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer whilst she caught her breath back.

After a minute or so, the door opened to see Zac's mum.

"Principal Santos?" Zac's mum asked surprised.

"Hello Mrs. Blakely. This is nothing serious, just, is Zac alright?" Rita asked, still getting her breath back.

"Maybe you should come inside and we can discuss the matter, you seem to know something." Mrs. Blakely sat Rita down on a couch facing another one which herself and her husband sat on.

"So, Zac?" Rob began.

"Yes, something strange has come up and I don't know if you have noticed it either," Rita began.

"It's plain to see Principal Santos, Zac's gone missing," Rob replied sounding slightly frantic.

"Yes, I'm worried myself for him, he is one of my top students as you well know. You know I usually go for a walk around a lot on weekends and I nearly always see Zac at some point, but I haven't so far this time. And you've just cleared up my point," Rita lied as best she could. "There is something we can do though."

"Yeah, contact the police for a missing person. It's been 24 hours after all," Rob pointed out.

"Listen, Dr. Blakely. We don't need to call the police. I have a plan. As a Principal, I have a very long list of contacts with connections to Zac, and it'll take less time to find him than a full scale police search. And I won't charge or anything, I want him to be safe just as much as you two do," Rita explained.

The couple looked at each other with a nod and turned back to Rita. "Alright, we'll let you handle the matter then. Just keep in touch with me on this... I want my son to be safe," Rob thanked Rita, a small tear being brought to his eye. This was the first time something major had happened to his son for him and he would admit it, he was scared.

"Just leave it to me," Rita replied, thanking them for the talk. When she left, instead of walking back to her house, she dove off of the docks when no-one was looking and torpedoed it back to her grotto.

When she surfaced and dried herself off, she walked into her grotto to find Lyla sitting down, with tears in her eyes.

"Lyla?" Rita looked at the state of her, she looked restless, worried and seemed like she had a lot on her plate. Even though deep down Rita was as furious as hell, she couldn't bring herself to be so mean right now.

"Rita I have a lot to explain to you. And I should start by saying I'm sorry for lying to you," Lyla spoke up.

"It's alright Lyla, tell me everything in your own time," Rita comforted her, sitting down next to her with Nixie and Sirena by their sides, all ears too.

"I'll keep it short... Zac was captured out at Mako and the last thing he saw before being caught was me. He's figured out about Sirena as well. That's only the beginning to the bad news. I stayed in the Moon Pool for a while, unable to forgive myself about not being able to do anything about the situation. Then I felt this strange presence, an evil one. When I found the source of it, it was a sea demon-"

"A sea demon?" Rita asked in shock. "They were supposed to be extinct!"

"Yes, but there was one making its way inside the body of a human... the Marine Biologist lady, Joanna. I managed to freeze off its tail so it'll take it ages to try and draw life from her but we still need to do something and fast!" Lyla finished.

"Well I went to see Zac's parents earlier and they've entrusted me to find him," Rita said.

"How will we find him?" Nixie asked.

"As a person of high power on land, I have lots of contacts for many different things. The best part being that I have one or two mermaid contacts on land who should be more than willing to help me find out where Zac is. As a Marine Biologist, she wouldn't be keeping Zac at an Experiment Centre that would be on the list of official sites, she would use a private one. This is where my contacts come into play, they have lots of unofficial information for me," Rita explained.

"What are we waiting for then?" Nixie asked standing up. "Let's get started already."

Everyone left the grotto and moved into Rita's lounge, Rita quickly firing up her laptop, ready to get some extensive research done.

* * *

**- Back at EC42 -**

The door to room 347 opened up with a large clank as the bolt was removed, waking up a sleeping Zac.

"Um, morning," John called as he walked over to Joanna's desk, Zac remaining quiet with his eyes fixed on the man who just entered the room.

"I'm John," he said as he looked over his shoulder at Zac, still not able to get a response.

He sighed. "Look, I know we have to do these scans this morning but there's no need to ask so cold okay?"

Zac suddenly remembered Joanna telling him about John, the supposed kindest of her men. "Sorry if I seem that way, it's not like I've had the comfiest nights sleep."

John smiled seeing as how he managed to get the merman to talk to him. "So, you're Zac right?"

"Yeah," he replied plainly.

"Okay, you know the whole thing about the scans, I'll just open up the tank and then you can steam dry yourself and meet me down by the desk," John said as he walked over to the ladder and began climbing it, Zac following him to the top at the same speed.

Once John opened the lid, he slid back down the ladder and retrieved the information that Joanna left him so that he could get his work done.

Zac climbed out and steam dried himself, climbed down the ladder and met John by the desk.

John looked over his shoulder again at the now human Zac and turned his head back a second later.

"So, these scans... I just lay under a machine and let them do their magic?" Zac asked, just to be sure.

"Yep, that's all you gotta do," John clarified.

"And how long will each scan take?" Zac asked.

"About an hour for each one," John replied.

"Right, you'll need to keep me wet for the second scan then," Zac began. "I don't remain a merman forever, once all the water on my body is dried off, back to being human."

"I'll tell the boys to add a mist setting to the scanner then so you'll be constantly sprayed with fresh water then. Thanks," John replied. The last thing they needed was any of these scans going wrong.

Once John had finished looking over all the documents and notes he'd been given, he lead Zac off to the scanner room.

* * *

**- After the scans -**

The scans had gone off without a hitch and Zac was being lead back to his tank room by John. When they reached it, the door was already open.

Walking inside, the lights switched on.

"Oh, Joanna," John called. "You took long enough to get back."

"I ran into an issue along the way, my boat's motor gave in and I kinda fell off my boat during an incident. Though someone saved me and my boat was all fine then," she explained, glazing over Zac. "Scans go okay then?"

"Yeah, they were fine," Zac replied, walking over to his tank. "So, how long will it be until this is all over?"

"Once I've taken a scale you'll be all good," Joanna replied in return, finding a pair of pliers from her desk. "Well come on, lets get it over and done with then."

Zac walked over to the chair by Joanna's desk and waited as water was poured onto his arm, his long tail flowing in turn of his legs.

Joanna decided to take a scale from the central area of his tail, Zac wincing in pain as it was ripped from him. As Joanna transferred it into a little dish of water, Zac steam dried himself, a scab appearing on his right leg where the scale from his tail was taken.

John during this time had gone back to work elsewhere, leaving just those two in the room.

"Alright, I'm all good to go now right?" Zac asked excitedly.

"Ye-" Joanna began to say before she felt an immense pain in her chest, she herself hunching over due to this pain.

"Joanna?" Zac asked worriedly.

The sea demon inside her had already began to work its magic. At this point, it was just about to begin feeding on her life force, and decided to have some fun. By taking control of the victim.

When Joanna turned around, her eyes were blood red and her teeth had become rather pointy.

Zac began backing away until he hit the edge of his tank.

"This is how things are going to go merboy, so listen up!" Joanna cried, as her voice overlapped with the sea demon's own. "If you thought I was going to let you escape you should re-think your calculations in this bargain!"

"Joanna what is wrong with you?" Zac asked in disbelief.

"I had this all planned you know," she began. "Ever since you landed in that Moon Pool, I was waiting for the opportune moment to ruin you. It was the likes of your kind that destroyed my kind and pushed us to near extinction. Seems like your capturing by this Marine Biologist was the moment I was waiting for."

Zac had no clue on earth what was going on.

"To put it short, the Joanna you knew is no longer with you. Although, the sea demon controlling her is very much in control right now!"

"A- a sea demon?" Zac asked himself. He'd never heard of one before.

"Oh come one, did those mermaids on land not tell you anything?" The sea demon asked.

Zac just looked away in disgust.

"Oh, they didn't. That's right... they betrayed you and kept their secret from you, only for you to discover them eventually. Don't you feel so ashamed of them, don't you just never want to see them again?"

Zac still didn't look back at the controlled Joanna.

"If I'm to take it as a yes, then that's fine. Alister, Thomas!" Joanna called for two of her men, the two called appearing at the door a few seconds later.

"Lock Zac here back up in the tank but tighten the tank seal and only allow one port hole for feeding," she commanded.

"What!?" Zac screamed as he was grabbed by the two men. "Let go of me."

"Not going to happen," the sea demon taunted.

Zac was forcibly shoved back into the tank and whilst Alister held him down under the water, Thomas lowered down the new lid which only had that tiny hole for feeding.

"Why are you doing this, whoever you are? I want to know!" Zac demanded.

"Simple, with you locked away here, your little fishy friends will be suspicious of where you are and come looking for you, not forgetting about your parents and that girl, Evie. Ooh, if only she were to learn what you'd become. We sea demons feed on the power of people and then grow to full size, able to wreak immense havoc."

"What I'm here for... is revenge that transverses a few centuries!"

* * *

**Nexus: And its done! Finally time to explain the lateness of this chapter. Number 1) I was only supposed to be going on a 4 day holiday but since it was the last day of the holiday season, we were allowed to have the extra day free. Speaking of our extra day, we won £176.60 on bingo, woohoo! So, I didn't get back off holiday until late night Saturday. Number 2) Too tired on Sunday and Number 3) The college week has not been kind, I've been getting lots of eye strain spending all my 6 hours of college in front of screens and coming home to them too, it bloody well hurts ya know!**

**But nonetheless, Chapter 6 is finally here! And I think this marks the midway point of our story. It's all action and drama from here.**

**Zac: Why did you have to go and do this to me?**

**Nexus: My story...**

**Even so, I'll see you all for Chapter 7 some time, can't make any guarantees when it'll be up**


	7. The Escape

**Nexus: Well, here it is... Chapter 7! I know it's been a little while since Chapter 6 came out and despite my promise to update something else before this story, ideas are just buzzing like nuts to get this story done. As I suspected, my idea of sticking to my outlines didn't work, they were more like a set of guide lines in the end...**

**Zac: But you'll still end up at the same ending with the same story points?**

**Nexus: Most likely, unless my brain buzzes me a new idea to add any time soon. Now, onto the new chapter. And thanks to everyone who was reviewed, faved and folllowed up until now, it'd be a long list if I mentioned everyone who has done so... so you all have my greatest thanks and I love each and everyone of you ^_^ xxx**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Escape

It had been two days since Zac was locked in his tank, thinking he was going to lose his mind if he stayed in it alone any longer.

His prayers were answered when Joanna unlocked the door to his room and walked in bearing good news, the sea demon in control.

"Don't seem so down Zac. You might want to try and act nice to me for what I'm about to do," Joanna said.

The seal of the porthole was lifted and a small creature was dropped in. It took Zac a few seconds to realise what it was, and more importantly who it was.

"Amy!" He screamed in happiness as he swam up to meet his friend with a hug. Amy was a small baby white spotted seal that Zac had seen and made good friends with out and around in the oceans. He didn't just stick to the Australian Coast, he ventured out further one day after leaving early and met Amy, his best ocean friend. Being a merman, he could understand her small cries as if she was speaking like she was a human.

After a long hug with her, he released his hold and turned back to Joanna. "Why would you do this for me?" Zac asked.

Once Joanna's men replaced the porthole seal and left the room, the sea demon inside her explained. "I'd been out and about and was there when you made such good friends with Amy. Yesterday you seemed really gloomy and depressed, so I thought you could use a friend to cheer you up."

Zac glared back at her realising that something couldn't have been right with this.

"Look, I can't have this woman's test subject getting all gloomy and depressed alright!? I didn't want to find her but I did so that you would seem slightly happier," Joanna explained.

Zac didn't know what to say. He was just happy right now to have a friend to keep him company. Right now he was totally trapped inside a tank in a rather secure Experiment Centre that wasn't known by many and had little to zero chance of escaping/ leaving any time soon. He knew he would just have to stay content.

"Well, if there is nothing more to say, then you will remain here with Amy for as long as I see fit." Joanna then left the room and locked to door.

Amy followed Zac down to the bottom of the tank and settled up along side him, letting out a small cry.

"I don't know how long we'll be here. We could be here forever at this rate," Zac said responding to her cry.

It was getting rather late so Zac settled down and eventually fell asleep. Amy rested up against him, offering Zac some comfort.

* * *

It had been roughly another two weeks and Zac was still locked away in his tank.

"Hey Joanna, why haven't you done anything about Zac recently?" John asked suspiciously.

"I have my reasons. I have no more research to do on him now but I'm not just going to release him back into the wild," she replied, the sea demon still in control all the time.

John could sense that something wasn't right, but he wasn't going to push Joanna on the issue.

**- In Zac's room -**

The door opened rather quickly and woke up a sleeping Zac and Amy as a flash of light flooded the room. Zac looked up once the light died down a little and saw the same woman who had been bringing him his and Amy's food for the last two weeks.

She climbed up the ladder with a bowl of sea food, mainly prawns, some tuna and a lobster, for both of them to eat. She opened the small porthole and dropped the food in for them. She walked back down the ladder and watched as both of them gathered it up and brought it back down to the bottom, feasting on it the second they got there.

The girl had never spoken to Zac once, but finally worked up the courage to see if he would respond to her.

"Hi," she said shyly.

To her surprise, Zac stopped eating and looked up at her, Amy just carrying on eating.

"Hey," he replied slowly. He was a little surprised, this girl had never talked to him before.

"Um, is the food- alright?" She eventually stumbled out.

"Yeah it's fine," Zac replied, still a little shook by human contact after so long.

"Listen I- I've wanted to talk to you for a while now but I always kept on wondering if you would reply to me, so I backed down. I guess I should say thanks for not ignoring me like you do with Joanna," the girl said rather softly.

Zac looked away in detest when he heard Joanna's name.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring her up," the girl apologised.

"It's okay," Zac replied sighing. "It's not your fault or anything."

The girl smiled happily to herself for a second or two. She'd never been able to work up the courage to talk to Zac ever before.

"You know, it's funny," she said to herself.

"What's funny?" Zac asked confused.

"I've seen you around many times and yet I've never talk to you before. This is the first contact you and I have ever made," she replied, as she began taking off her glasses and untying her hair.

As she did so, Zac slowly realised who this girl was.

"Marie Westhall?" Zac said rather loudly in shock.

"Shush! I'm not even supposed to still be here you know," she replied, putting a finger to her lips. "But yes, it's me, the really quiet one from nearly all your classes in Sun Coast High." Marie was almost as tall as Evie was, if not a little shorter. She had luscious green eyes and long flowing blonde hair, but she had it previously tied up in a spiky bun. She also wore a pair of fake glasses as they obscured her identity as she was known for having rather good eye sight.

Amy had finished eating her food and swam over to where Zac was, pressing her face right against the glass, looking at Marie. "So, you're Amy right?"

Amy cried back at her and swam round for a little bit, providing some entertainment and light heartedness.

Zac couldn't believe his this. The one person he'd got human contact with was a girl he'd seen loads in life but never talked to. "So, the one time I actually talk to you is one the one time you see me like this?"

"I know, I can't still fathom it myself," Marie replied. "This has been bugging me for a while now, but who on land knowns you're like this?"

It didn't take Zac long to think about that. "There's Cam, Nixie, Lyla, Sirena, David and Joe."

Marie was a little shocked that six people knew about him, but a little bit more shocked by three people not mentioned.

"So, your parents and even your own girlfriend don't know about you?"

Zac looked away in sadness for a second.

"Zac?"

"I've wanted to tell Evie for the longest time now," he said in a low sad tone. "But I've never been able to work up the courage and tell her. I guess I'm afraid of what will happen if I do. And I can't tell my parents, dad's a doctor after all."

Marie never looked at it in that way before. He was just scared of what she would think.

"So how come everyone else you mentioned knows. Accidents or?"

Zac sighed, he was going to have to obscure some of the moments here. "Cam was the first one I told about it, since I was in such shock from it all, and he's helped me through with it. There was an incident where I got caught on some netting and Joe saw me and chased me out to Mako. David went with him and eventually both found out. As for the girls, if you remember the pool party Evie threw me, Cam shoved me into the pool and those three were there when at the time." He completely left out the fact that the three girls were mermaids, he couldn't risk that kind of info in a place like this.

"Sounds like you've been through a lot then," Marie replied after taking it all in. "But, there's still one thing I don't get? Joanna's done all her research yet she's still keeping you prisoner and she hasn't given anyone a reason for it."

Zac couldn't tell Marie about the sea demon inside her, so he lied. "I don't know myself. All I know is that I've just got to stick it out until I'm let free. I don't know how long it will be... but know that I've got Amy, and you, I know I'll be okay."

Marie smiled at his words whilst Amy tackled his face, nuzzling him in happiness.

"Marie! Aren't you done feeding him!?" A voice called rather angrily from down the hall.

"Coming Joanna!" Marie called back as she hurried and grabbed the empty bowl. "I have to go Zac, I'll see you next feeding time!" She ran out of the door and pulled it shut as she left.

Zac settled back down at the bottom of the tank with Amy, just happy to have found some human contact.

* * *

**- Meanwhile, on land -**

During the two weeks that had gone by, life on land had been hectic. Word of Zac's disappearance had broken out and was all over the Australian news. The mermaids and Rita were still working their hardest with Rita's many contacts to try and find Zac, but they still weren't getting anything. They'd done god knows how much research in Joanna Fischer and her many research labs and experiment centre's.

Zac's parents, Evie and Cam had been working like nuts themselves, trying to get some sort of lead on Zac. Evie did ask Sirena if she knew anything but Sirena had to lie to her and say that she knew nothing. Evie was getting rather suspicious of the newcomers since they had spent plenty of time with Zac before, and even her own Principal seemed rather interested in him since he changed suddenly.

Evie had only one clue to go on. A year ago she did work experience at an experiment centre that had its own passage system and wasn't anywhere near the gold coast area. She didn't know the name of it but she still had her key card for the docs passage system. She didn't know what possessed her to think that Zac would be out there or around the area, but she thought it was worth a shot. What if Zac had been helping out Joanna and since no news was passed down, no-one knew anything?

She left her house and headed out to Zac's house. She rang the doorbell and was greeting by Zac's mum.

"Hey Evie," Mrs Blakely said cheerfully.

"Hi Mrs Blakely. I need a favour," Evie said bluntly.

"What kind of favour?" She asked.

"Could I borrow the key to Zac's boat tied up at the dock?" Evie asked back, flinching slightly.

"Sure, I don't see why not. Going out on another dive are we?"

Evie knew that so wasn't the reason, but she went along with it.

"Yeah, we would have used dad's boat but the motor went bust so he sent me round to ask if we could borrow it for a while," Evie lied.

"Oh, it's no problem then, give me one second," Mrs Blakely replied as she went inside to get the key. She walked back to the door and tossed it to Evie.

"Take good care of it alright?"

"I shall do," Evie replied happily. Now she had a boat to get her to her destination.

"Bye Evie," Mrs Blakely called as she closed the door.

Evie rushed over to the dock where she'd left her back with some food and drink, and her EC42 Key card, and hopped aboard Zac's boat, driving it out of the canal and into the open ocean. It was going to get dark but she didn't care. Night time was a better time to investigate anyway, less people around.

* * *

**- At Rita's place -**

"Should we be worried about tonight?" Sirena asked.

"I don't know really," Rita replied. "It may be a full moon but we don't know if Zac has any way of being in sight of it. He might see it, he might not see it, we'll never know. If he does see it, we can only hope that nothing bad happens.

Lyla was really worried. She knew herself how strong the pull of the moon was and knew that if Zac saw it, there was no telling what would happen to him. Was his whole being a merman thing only a one moon cycle like Nixie first thought? Would nothing happen at all? All she could do was last it out and hope for the best.

* * *

**- The same night -**

Back at the room that Zac was being held in, there was a small window on the ceiling that allowed Light to get in. It was only a small window, but it was more than enough.

Zac woke up as he felt a light slowly creeping into the room. He looked up at the small window and was completely phased when the light of the full moon hit his eyes.

Amy looked up to see Zac completely fixated at the moon and began shaking him. Despite her efforts, Zac wasn't moving.

After taking a deep breath in, Zac just snapped!

He began thrashing his tail against the glass, desperate to get out of the tank, scaring poor Amy in the process.

Because it was so late at night, though, no-one else was around to see this or hear this happening.

After about 5 minutes of constant glass smashing attempts, Zac suddenly stopped, his body becoming very weak as he fainted to the bottom of the tank. Amy tried to wake him up but to no avail. She eventually just went back to sleep and hoped that Zac was okay after what happened.

Half an hour later, Zac stirred from his sudden faint, much to the surprise of Amy.

Amy cried at his and shot right into his chest for a cuddle.

"I'm fine Amy, what's wrong?" Zac asked looking at the saddened face of his seal friend.

Amy explained to Zac in short cries what he'd done.

"I see, the full moon huh?"

Amy cried to him again, but with a plan in mind.

Zac eyes shot open at the idea of the plan. Yeah it was crazy nuts and it would drain loads of energy from his body but it was worth it if he could pull it off.

Amy noticed that Zac's tail bashing had created a small dent in the tank's wall, all he would need to do was keep on smashing away at it with Amy's help until it broke and then escape using his powers to open all the locked doors and make a break from this place. He didn't know where he would go, but it would be far away from this place.

Zac and Amy spent the next two hours knocking away at the dent, making slow but steady progress on the crack. Amy took one rather large swing at it with her tail that seemed to have made good work on it. Soon after she did though, the glass cracked and the water from the tank flooded the entire room.

Zac then proceeded to use his powers to dry up all the water in the room. It seems the full moon gave him a boost in his powers as the speed the water was disappearing at was much faster than ever before. Within 5 minutes, Zac was done and he himself was dry. He scooped Amy up into his arms as she just looked at him with here small eyes open as wide as they would do.

Lucky for Zac, Joanna had left an area plan of EC42 open for viewing on her desk which Zac had been studying for quite some time. Using his spare hand that wasn't supporting Amy, he unlocked the door to his room, surprised that no alarms were sett off or anything. EC42 may have been an extensive research centre but because it was so obscure, not much security was ever put in.

After a long time of remembering the map and getting lost once or twice, Zac and Amy eventually found their way out of the front door of EC42 and made a break for the open Ocean.

Amy was so happy to be back in the water just then, she hated being out of the water for too long, even just those few minutes. She cried at Zac, asking him about the whole human thing.

"Yeah, I never told you about that did I?" Zac replied, feeling slightly guilty. Amy thought he was a fully fledged merman, not a half human breed.

Nonetheless, Amy still gave him a nuzzle around the face and began heading out with Zac. She cried, asking him what he was going to do now, since Amy herself had to get home.

"I don't know where I'll go. I guess I'll find somewhere to sleep for the night and then try and find those girls," Zac replied, giving his friend a hug goodbye.

Once Amy had left the area, Zac decided to head to the one part of a nearby beach that he knew would be secluded at this time of night.

Oh how wrong he was. When he got there, he could hear incessant screams and burst of anger on the shore. He slowly popped his head up out of the water and saw the last thing he needed to see right now.

When Evie was heading out towards EC42, she'd gotten herself a little bit lost. Not only that, the boat's motor had really given in. The one thing Evie lied about was the one thing that happened to happen with her. She'd dragged the boat onto the shore and was shouting as she tried to fix the motor, but to no avail.

"Evie?" Zac said without even realising it.

Evie suddenly shot her head around to see the source of her name being called.

"Zac?" Evie said breathlessly. Was she just hallucinating right now? No, Zac was really here! "Zac!" She began wading out into the water to come to him.

"No Evie, stay back a minute," Zac asked her as he swam back a little.

"Why? Look, am I hallucinating or is that really you I'm seeing?" Evie asked back.

"Oh no, it's me alright," Zac replied, turning his head.

"You've been declared missing for nearly three weeks now Zac! And you suddenly turn up here? What's been going on? Where did you go, where have you been?" There was anger and yet happiness in her voice and she fired off these questions to her boyfriend.

Zac didn't reply to anything and just looked away.

Evie noticed that he didn't seem well. His cheeks were flushed but his skin was really pale and he looked rather sickly. His eyes were full of pain and misery and his face devoid of all life.

"Maybe you should come ashore and we can talk," she suggested in a soft tone, as she walked back out onto land.

She turned around to see that Zac hadn't moved.

"Zac?"

"I can't," he said plainly.

"What do you mean you can't? Can't what?" Evie asked confused.

"I can't come on shore right now," he replied in a low tone.

Evie just stared at him dumbfounded and angry.

"There's a really good explanation as to why I can't," he said taking in a deep breath. Right now, he had to tell Evie.

"I'm... I- eh," he stumbled.

"Just say it already Zac!" Evie shouted at him.

"I'm a merman alright!?" Zac shouted back even louder, taking short breaths of air in afterwards.

"What?" Evie asked in shock.

"I'm a merman," he re-enforced.

Evie didn't know how to respond right now.

"I've wanted to tell you for ages," he said with a tear in his eye as he lifted his tail out of the water for Evie to see, Evie herself jumping back a bit when she saw it.

"How long?" She eventually asked. "How long have you been like this?"

"Just under two months," Zac replied in a sad tone.

Evie couldn't believe him. "Two months? I guess I'm not the first person who knows either?"

"No," Zac replied, looking away from her.

"So who else? Cam maybe? What about David? Or those girls who always seem so interested in you?"

"It's a long story Evie and one that I don't have time to explain," Zac told her briefly, swimming closer and closer to a rock that was only a metre off the shore line. "Short story, I'm in trouble right now and I need your help." He was desperate now.

"Why should I help you?" Evie growled.

"That scientist Joanna Fischer, I've been her captive test subject this entire time," Zac explained.

Evie was a little thrown off by this. "But she told the media that she hadn't-"

"She hasn't told the media anything for several good reasons! She's being controlled by an evil power and I've only just managed to escape the place. Took nearly two hours of slapping a glass tank to get out but it was worth it." He sighed for a second. "I still need your help."

"Fine," Evie replied. "But I want you to tell me everything. The whole truth, not a single detail left out understood?"

"Understood," Zac replied as he pulled himself up onto the rock and steam dried himself.

When he stood up, Evie couldn't take her eyes off of him. "How did you?"

"Part of the tail deal. I'll explain it all later yeah?" Zac jumped off of the rock and down onto the beach where Evie was standing.

"We'll go to my place, get some rest and we'll talk in the morning," Evie said sharply as she looked around the boat. "Only issue is getting back."

Zac looked over at the busted motor and had an idea. He dived back into the Ocean and used his powers to drag the boat back out next to him.

Evie just looked at him again, her initial shock wearing off pretty quickly. There was only so much she could take in. Zac steered the boat over towards where Evie was and motioned for her to get on.

"I'll just have to drag it back with me then," he said as he dived under the water and swam a few metres out in front of the boat. He then flicked his hands backwards and began using his telekinesis to bring the boat with him.

The ride home to Evie's gave her lots of time to think over everything that had happened. Inside she was as furious as hell at Zac for not telling her about what happened to him. But with the state he was in and all the business with the marine biologist, she knew she would have to be just a little bit soft on him. It wasn't a good idea to herself so worked up over it and make Zac scared of her.

After some sleep, even though it was 5 in the morning, Evie would be getting all the answers she wanted.

* * *

**Nexus: I can't ignore this story right now... I'm too attached to it, plus people seem to really like this which makes me happy. I think this is the first fanfic I've been so excited about. I've already started work on Chapter 8 which you'll be seeing either tomorrow or sometime middle of the week probably. If work becomes too much, it'll be the weekend before I post it.**

**I hope everyone liked this chapter and I hope you're all looking forward to the next one ;) xxx**


End file.
